A group of U.S. LGBT human rights academics and activists
are speaking out, calling for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestine after
being the first openly queer delegation to tour Palestine last month.

The 16-member group toured the West Bank of Palestine
January 7-13 in order to gain an up close and personal understanding of queer
life in Palestine and the effects of the Israeli occupation.

"This was a very significant trip, this was the first
LGBT delegation to Palestine," said Sarah Schulman, a 53-year-old Jewish
lesbian, who organized the trip with LGBT Palestinian organizations Al Qaws,
ASWAT, and Palestinian Queers for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.

This was Schulman's second visit to Palestine; her
experience and research will be published in the forthcoming book Israel/Palestine
and the Queer International.

The delegates were a diverse group of LGBT advocates and
scholars representing a variety of personal and professional backgrounds, said
Schulman.

Schulman was inspired to create the trip after Jewish
academics approached her and asked that she not speak at the Lesbian and Gay
Studies conference at Tel Aviv University two years ago, she said.

After some research into the situation she declined the
speaking invitation and began doing solidarity work on behalf of LGBT
Palestinians. She went on her own tour of Palestine and spoke with
anti-occupation leaders and queer rights leaders in Palestine. She then
organized a tour of the U.S. with three Palestinian queer leaders in February
2011.

Since the group's return one of the delegates, Pauline Park,
chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, presented on a
panel discussion "Why Palestine is an LBGT issue" at last month's
Creating Change conference. The panel attracted more than 80 attendees,
according to Park.

Park was also one of 12 delegates that signed onto a letter
calling for LGBT activists to take action in support of the end of the
occupation of Palestine circulated on international LGBT listserves in January.

Filmmaker Nadia Awad, a Palestinian-American documentarian, joined the group as a part of the documentary she is working on, said
Schulman.

"The situation has become intolerable and also irrefutable,"
said Schulman, an academic who teaches at a couple of New York universities and
sits on the advisory boards of the Center for Human Rights and Social Movements
at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Many of the participants expected to see harsh conditions,
but the physical reality deeply disturbed the members of the group.

"All of us were deeply, deeply moved and devastated by
what we saw," said Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia Law
School and a delegate on the trip.

Franke, who worked on human rights issues in Africa and the
Middle East, including Palestine, likened the erosion of Palestine to South
Africa before the end of apartheid.

"Since I was last there, the severity of the occupation
has become much more palpable. The areas that had been left to the
Palestinians for self-rule from the Oslo Accords have become almost entirely
occupied now militarily by the Israelis. So, the military presence in the West
Bank is much more shocking in a way and the apartheid aspect of the occupation
is much more shocking," said Franke.

Park, one of three transgender individuals on the trip,
described Israeli's treatment of Palestinians as "very prison-like"
and "humiliating" and the occupation of Palestine "really brutal"
and "profoundly immoral."

"I was not too surprised by what I saw, but I still
found it shocking," said Park, who spent an additional week touring Israel
speaking with Israeli and Palestinian activists to gain
a better understanding of both sides of the conflict. "I came face to face
with an occupation, which to my eyes seemed far more systematic, intrusive, and
brutal than I had anticipated."

Palestine is wrought with poverty and Palestinians gave up
armed resistance quite some time ago, said Park and Schulman.

"Palestine doesn't have any power. They don't have any
currency. They don't have any money. They don't have any media presence. They
have no sway and that's why this has been so distorted," said Schulman
about the widespread censorship and the types of stories produced in the media that
mainly focus on "religious fundamentalists and terrorism" and
Israel's so-called pink washing campaign.

Activists have long accused Israel of co-opting the LGBT
movement by waiving the rainbow flag and painting Palestine as homophobic and
intolerant of its LGBT citizens as it courts the pink dollar.

"Most of the things that we are told about that
situation are not true," said Schulman.

Israel's claims that the country provides asylum or a safe
place for LGBT Palestinians is not true, Schulman said.

"There is no asylum for gay Palestinians in Israel,
zero. This is absolutely false, there is no special privilege or right for gay
Palestinians in Israel," said Schulman.

Park added that Palestinians couldn't travel between
Palestine and Israel without a permit and applying and obtaining permits are
very difficult and risky, especially for LGBT Palestinians.

"Ending the occupation would significantly help queer
Palestinians," said Park.

Franke and Park agreed with Schulman that LGBT Americans
need to grasp how their tax money is being used to subsidize Israel's
occupation of Palestine.

"It's something that all Americans, especially, I
think, queer-identified Americans, should be concerned about. We have a
responsibility, whether we like it or not, to address the issue because the
U.S. is the only country that has the ability to change the facts on the
ground. It is the only country that Israel will listen to," said Park.

A request for comment from Ohad Salmon, the LGBT liaison to
the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, garnered no response by press time.

There was no response to a similar request to ASWAT, Al
Qaws, BDS Movement, and PQBDS.